Cheryl Davila's BDS litmus test for Berkeley

Through the wonder of Berkeley's "ranked choice" voting Cheryl Davila found herself on the Berkeley city council.   In the November 2016 election, incumbent Darryl Moore received just under 40% of the 8,000 votes cast in the first round of the ranked-choice ballot. Nanci Armstrong-Temple and Cheryl Davila split the remaining votes 29% and 31%. 

The second round of ranked-choice voters gave Moore an additional 446 votes and Davila 1,236 votes, giving Davila a narrow victory margin of just 168 votes.

Davila's claim to fame in Berkeley previously had been her hijacking the agenda of the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission for months, in an effort to pass a divestment from Israel proposal.

In her quest for election to the city council, the Davila campaign called upon their old friends at UC Berkeley's Students for Justice in Palestine, visiting them, and posting on their Facebook page.

Cheryl has remained active in the anti-Israel camp, appearing at rallies on campus and in front of the local Israeli consulate.  She has apparently been attempting to pay back her campaign debts.

Berkeley City Councilperson Cheryl Davila promotes extremist views

Ben Gerhardstein, a former city transportation commissioner believes Cheryl Davila booted him off the Commission in part because he declined to state his opinion regarding divestment from Israel. 

From Berkeleyside: 

“You indicated that a non-transportation issue was important to you in selecting a Transportation Commissioner,” Gerhardstein wrote to Davila on Nov. 27 after she informed him by email that he had been removed from the commission. “During our first meeting, you noted that as a Human Welfare and Community Action Commissioner you authored a recommendation to Council to divest from companies benefiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, which raised your profile. You said that the issue was important to you and you asked whether I was pro-Palestinian (and supported divestment) or a Zionist. You noted that you were asking all potential District 2 commissioners this question and suggested that you were only interested in appointing divestment supporters to commissions...”

At least two other commissioners serving at the behest of Davila told Berkeleyside the question of Israel and divestment came up during their interviews with Davila....

By dragging her BDS litmus test into the realm of local politics, Davila has again shown her willingness to abandon the very real needs of the people of Berkeley.  Imagine if a Jewish candidate did what Davila has done.  Imagine the calls of "dual loyalty". 

Read it all at Berkeleyside.


UPDATE: From Dan Pine, writing in the J of Northern California

According to the City of Berkeley’s published record of campaign contributions, her campaign drew financial support from local anti-Israel activists U.C. Berkeley lecturer and SJP founder Hatem Bazian (currently under fire for anti-Semitic tweets from earlier this year), Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, and Donald Wagner from Friends of Sabeel.\

Interesting....